Picking Flowers
by kole13
Summary: Astrid sees Hiccup picking flowers one day and writes it off as pathetic. What was he really doing?


This is my first fan fiction for this movie. It's an idea that I came up with one day, and I'm not sure this is really that good. But I want some other opinions. Please be easy.

**Flower Picking**

They five younger Vikings were exploring the woods that day. It was cloudy and storm clouds were rolling in fast. They had been heading back to the village when they cut through a large clearing when Tuffnut spotting Hiccup sitting by himself in the center.

"Aw, look, little Hiccup is trending to the flowers." He said using a voice someone else would had use for a baby.

Astrid looked back and finally noticed him, the light was growing dimmer and the smaller boy's green tunic helped him go almost unnoticeable. He had his back turned to them head down and shoulders hunched forwards; his left hand was feeling one of the petals of the flower near him. He looked horrible, dirt smudged o his tunic, probably from a fall and he looked even smaller than usual.

An arm nudged her shoulder, she looked in time to see Snotlout wink at her and smirk as he started toward Hiccup. Tuffnut started to snigger and Ruffnut, smirking, elbowed him to keep him quiet. Fishlegs fiddled his fingers, his eyes down casted.

Snotlout swaggered up to Hiccup; the younger boy still had his attention on the flower he was playing with. _How could he not notice they were here?_ Astrid thought. _Was he really that absent minded?_

Snotlout stopped when he standing over Hiccup, raised his foot and stomped down hard on the flower. Hiccup yelped and jerked backwards, barely catching himself before he fell over. His eyes were bugged out and he looked scared.

"Aw, did I hurt your little friend?" Snotlout cooed, contorting his face in faux concern. Then his eyes turned steely and his face darkened. "You're about as pathetic as it gets." He spat and Hiccup flinched as the spit hit his face. "When I become chief, your butts out." And with that he ground his heel in the dirt and turned away, a victorious smile on his face.

Astrid just shook her head and turned back towards the village, Fishlegs followed after, the other three behind him, laughing it up. They all shut up and picked up the pace as the rain started to pour.

None of the others notice Hiccup was still sitting in the clearing, they didn't notice as he righted himself and hugged his knees and buried his face into his arms, they didn't notice as he cried as the rain came down.

_~:~:~:~:~_

Astrid trudged through the forest with Snotlout following her. They were heading out to train for the day; because that was the only way she could get him to leave her alone long enough to get a real day's of training in. On the plus side, it gave her the change to show off and give him a fair warning of what he was in for should he ever get too bold around her.

On the way there, they passed the same clearing they had passed that night six years earlier. And just like last time, there was Hiccup and he was…

'_Is he really picking flowers?_' Astrid thought to herself in detest. And he was; he was kneeling in the grass, he cut the stems with a small knife. He was even going about it as if he was really thinking hard about what he was doing. He would cute one, look at the ones in his hand, look around and choose another one.

Snotlout face was one of disbelief, but the wheels were going off in his head as he thought this was too good of an opportunity to humiliate the runt to past up. He made toward Hiccup but Astrid grabbed him by the hair.

"We don't have time for him." She said as she pulled him away. She couldn't waste time being distracted. Next year she would be fifteen, she would finally be able to start real dragon training. She had to focus.

Neither of them noticed Hiccup glance over his shoulder, hearing Snotlout's "Ow, Ow, Ow" receding into the forest. Hiccup didn't return to village until after night fall and for the next month the new pun towards him was if he would do the flower arrangements for weddings.

~:~:~:~:~

Astrid walked through the forest, her axe in her hand. While she didn't need to train none stop to protect the village from dragons, she still wanted to keep her axe skills crisp. Her Nadder, Quill, had stayed at the house, at Astrid request; while they trusted one another, not to extreme extent of another certain Viking/dragon pair, seeing Astrid with her axe still unnerved him. So while he slept, Astrid would go and train. She was almost at her favorite spot, right where she had first seen Hiccup sneaking out to the cove, she heard someone laugh.

"Toothless, you're not going to caught it." It was definitely Hiccup. At least Toothless was with him. Leaving her axe by the tree she walked toward the sound. A short ways away, she was back at the clearing, the same one she saw Hiccup in last year. But this time, along with Hiccup, there was Toothless the Night Fury; who was currently tensed and watching something with the utmost attention. Astrid was about to make herself known when the dragon leapt in to the air, his claws extended and heading in her direction! She ducked behind a tree and heard Toothless's paws connecting with the ground. Then she heard a questioning purr and then a disappointed growl and Hiccup chuckling.

"Told you so."

Astrid peeked out from behind the tree. Toothless was watching a butterfly flutter past overhead and looking very annoyed. She watched as Hiccup stood and noticed he had a bunch of flowers in his hand, at least one of every kind from the clearing. He stood up and placed his dagger back in his belt. "Okay, this'll do." He said to himself. "Alright, let's go." He started out of the clearing and Toothless rounded about and started after Hiccup. Once his dark hide had blending in with the trees, Astrid stepped out of her hiding place.

For the first time, she really looked at the clearing. It really was beautiful; sunlit, calm and serene, with almost every type of flower on Berk: Foxglove, Bog asphodel, Ragged robins, spotted orchids, sheep bits, etc. She was actually starting to understand why he liked hanging out there, but she still wished he won't pick flowers; that definitely took away from the image of the Red Death Slayer he had gotten for himself.

'Where was he going?' Astrid wondered. She looked to where the Viking and his dragon had wondered off to, and started after them. After jogging a little, she found herself tailing further into the forest, keeping far back enough so Toothless would not sense her, which was tricky because she had no idea how good his radar was. But her worries were unneeded as it seemed that Toothless concentrating on making sure Hiccup didn't trip and hurt himself. After about a two minute track they came to another clearing, one that Astrid was familiar with.

It was the memorial site. An area that the Vikings of earlier generations had cleared had made a place of remembrance. The area was cleared of trees and stumps and for every Viking that had ever died defending their home or in the line of duty, a stone had been placed. Carved into the stones was their name, dates they had died and what had taken their life. Over the years, it had gotten large in perimeter, and many of them had been taken during dragon raids.

'Why in the world would he bring Toothless here?' Astrid thought. She watched Hiccup move through the stones and stopped and knelt before one, Toothless sit beside him. Astrid slowly made her way along the tree line, trying to get close enough to see the stone.

"This is her's." She heard Hiccup say to Toothless. And that instant, Astrid knew who Hiccup was talking about. She froze, and watched as Hiccup placed the flowers before the stone and continued.

"My mother died protecting the village. It happened when I was seven." Hiccup's voice quivered a bit. "When it happened, it was really rough, even worse with my dad. Mom was the only bridge we had back then, with her gone, it got a lot worse. Back then my mom was the only one in the village that didn't constantly look down on me, and whenever I got really upset, or things got too heated in the village, she would always bring me out to that clearing. She told me that she found it when she was younger, and she loved going there in the spring, the flowers always made her feel happy." He stopped then, memories catching up to him.

"After she was put to rest, I would go out there every day and just wish that she'd come back, just for a minute. I'd go there anytime village life got unbearable, when things got too heat at home. Then a year after she died I came back here and I remembered her saying how much she loved them, and then I got an idea. She always loved the flowers from that place so I decided to bring some to her. So every year, I started bringing her flowers. When I was younger, I was hoping she could have them with her in Valhalla. Then it became something I did to help remember her. I'd tell her what was going on around the island, how my life was going. People may have thought I was crazy, but it helped me cope. And it was then I realized, if she was still alive, she'd be disappointed in me if I kept wasting my days moping around. She'd want me to keep trying, doing my best. So I decided that if I couldn't be a real Viking the "Viking" way, I'd become a warrior "my" way. And that's when I started figuring out ways to fight dragons a different way. And how I got the name of Hiccup the Useless."

Astrid heard Toothless croon sadly and could just see him nudging Hiccup in the shoulder. "It's okay, it's ancient history by now. And really these past few months, the pain of losing her has gotten a lot smaller."

Astrid bit her lip at that, remembering what Snotlout and the others had done to him over the years and how they had laughed at him when they had first found him in the clearing. Suddenly the twig her hand was resting on snapped and Toothless's head turned to the sound. She ducked behind the trunk, her face going red, how would Hiccup react to her overhearing what he had just confided to a dragon?

"Someone there?" Hiccup called. Astrid began to debate whether she should just come out or wait for Toothless to rat her out. But after a minute, she heard Toothless snort and groan. "Just an animal or something, huh?"

"So anyway, that's what I wanted to show you." Hiccup stood. "Let's go. It's a perfect day for flying, and mom would be disappointed if I was using it to mourn." Toothless crooned again, this time with anticipation. Astrid heard Hiccup laugh at this and say, "Hang on, I need to get my harness." and heard Toothless trot away. She slowly peeked out from behind the tree trunk and saw Hiccup standing up. He looked back at his mother's stone for a moment, as if to tell her he was fine and smiled. Then he turned and followed his dragon back to the village.

Astrid waited until she was sure they were out of sight and turned into the clearing and walked towards the stones. It was easy to spot Hiccup's mother's stone, she stood before it and read:

_Valhallarama. March 4 1003. Died defending her homeland_.

Astrid sighed. She remembered the first time she had seen Hiccup picking the flowers and how she had written it off as the boy's pathetic hobby. Now after what she heard, she felt like crawling into a hole. All those years of Hiccup being belittled and shoved aside and the real reason for his seeking away was to have some sense of comfort. She sighed and turned back in the direction where she left her axe.

I'm not sure Vikings really did that. I do know that when one dies, they set them out on a ship and set fire to it, but I made it like that. I know it ended kind of suddenly but nothing else I worked with seemed to fit right. Yes this is a first time story, so I hope you liked it.


End file.
